Flooding: Act of God, Acts of Man

I’ve been watching the news and reading the blogs about the typhoons and flooding that recently hit the Philippines – my new home. And, I’ve waited a bit before posting so that some of the immediate emotions have settled down a bit. No question that what happened was a tragedy, but my own experience with floods suggests that urban flooding can be minimized or avoided.

While the typhoon may have been an act of God, it’s been my experience that flooding is often the act of man. And while it is easy to point the finger at some politician, the truth is probably that it is the fault of many. Hopefully, we can all learn from this and reduce the risk of it happening again.

Over twenty years ago a similar storm triggered a flood that swept through my parents’ home. Fortunately, a neighbor had pulled them out of the home before a three foot wave of water swept through the home. Everyone was surprised because the house was about 10 feet above the stream bed, and my parents lived in an area that was normally very dry. In fact, for most of the year the stream bed was completely dry.

What happened after that was an eye opener. Of course, there was a lot of finger pointing. My parents even received threats because they were among the first recipients of aid from the government and others who were also in trouble but still had not received aid were understandably angry. But after all the emotions settled down, the emergency steps helped everyone who needed it.

More importantly over the next couple of years the local government took steps to reduce the risk of the flood ever happening again. While I am often critical of the USA, it was one instance where the government did the right things for once. Instead of blaming people, careful thought went into assessing the cause of the flood and then taking steps to eliminate or reduce the impact of the many causes.

These are the steps that were taken:

Local Government Funding and Public Awareness

Until the flood occurred, the government did not have the will or the means to take steps to prevent the flood. While it may have been easy to blame the government, the reality was that we the people, did not give them the will or the means to do so. Instead, we wanted more homes built in the neighborhood, nicer roads, and all the good stuff associated with increasing a neighborhood’s value. Nowhere in our minds was the thought of doing any work on the stream. That would have been so unsexy, and we wanted a sexy looking neighborhood.

After the flood, things changed. The community and government realized that some very basic environmental steps needed to be taken. Tax money was diverted from “sexy” projects and combined with emergency funds from the federal government, work began to address the risk of flooding. But before any of this could occur, the people had to want it and had to empower the politicians to do something about it with the consensus to address an “unsexy” environmental issue and to divert money to an “unsexy” project.

Land Development

We lived in a rapidly growing part of town. Natural forest was being removed and paved over in the name of progress. With every square foot of natural forest removed, no one seemed to take into account what the effect this might have on water runoff during a rain. If just three inches of rain fell on a natural forest, much of it would be absorbed into the ground. But once that land was paved, most of the rain did not seep into the soil and instead flowed to the stream, where it simply added to the height of the water flowing in the stream. As more land was paved, the stream had to take more water from the rain until its capacity to channel water to the sea was exceeded.

A flood was in the making and no one fully understood it. After the flood, land development slowed down and more natural forest was preserved to reduce the flood risk.

Drainage Channel Improvement

Much of the land had already been developed. It was no longer possible to restore all the natural forest. So a lot of effort went into improving the drainage of water in the stream. In the following years, the stream bed was widened and paved over with concrete. This increased the capacity of the stream bed to channel water to the sea even in heavy rains and reduced the risk of stream blockages.

Stream Bed Maintenance

The government also took steps to regularly clean the stream bed. Large rocks, branches and trash were removed regularly. This helps to prevent any blockages in the drainage system that might cause flooding. Much of the water that flooded my parents home were the result of trash being caught under a nearby bridge that blocked the flow of water to the sea. Since the drainage channel improvement and stream bed maintenance, the height of the stream during a storm does not reach dangerous levels.

Summary:

While the storm that flooded my parents’ home was clearly an act of God, the flood that followed it was largely the result of actions by humans. It was not the fault of a single human, but of a broader community that failed to understand the consequences of its actions on a fragile environment. Following the flood, awareness of flooding improved and the necessary resources provided to prevent it. But it took the will of the people and the government to make it happen. It is costly to improve stream beds and regularly maintain it. But today, it is perceived as an important and necessary cost.

I am not an expert on the areas flooded in the Philippines as a result of the typhoon. I suspect that similar human forces were at work. Perhaps my experience with a flood that nearly took the lives of my parents will be of some use to those in my new home in the Philippines.

One life lost to our mistakes is one life too many. I was lucky twenty years ago, but for many in my new home today, there are only tears for the loss of a loved one. I hope that solutions can be found. I believe they can… I am a real lousy swimmer.

Popularity: 4% [?]